Sweden to raise use of frozen Russian assets at EU meeting

Sweden intends to raise the issue of further use of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, which will be held on September 1–2 in Ireland.

This was stated by Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard before attending the EU foreign ministers' meeting in the Gymnich format.

According to her, the European Union must simultaneously increase pressure on the Russian economy and ensure sufficient support for Ukraine both in the short and long term. Frozen Russian assets, the Swedish foreign minister believes, should play an important role in this.

"The EU must continue to increase pressure on the increasingly weak Russian economy. We must also ensure greater support for Ukraine both in the short and long term. Frozen Russian assets play a central role in achieving this goal," said Malmer Stenergard.

To put this issue back on the European Union's agenda, Sweden, together with the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, sent a corresponding letter to European officials. The four countries call for resuming discussions on additional ways to use frozen Russian funds in Ukraine's interests.

This primarily concerns more than 200 billion euros of assets of the Central Bank of Russia, frozen in the European Union after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The majority of these funds are held in the Belgian depository Euroclear.

So far, EU countries have not agreed on directly using the principal amount of frozen Russian assets. One of the main obstacles remains legal and financial risks. In particular, Belgium, where most of the funds are located, opposed previous versions of such a mechanism.

At the same time, proceeds from the blocked Russian assets are already used to finance aid to Ukraine, including for servicing international credit mechanisms. Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain propose exploring new legal and technical options that would allow the use of Russian funds much more widely.

Ukraine will be one of the main topics of the meeting

The first item on the agenda of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers will be Russia's war against Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will take part in the discussion.

According to the Swedish government, ministers will then discuss the situation in the Middle East, as well as ways to make the EU's common foreign and security policy more effective. The foreign ministers of the UK, Canada, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland will join part of the talks.

The Gymnich meeting is informal and does not itself provide for the adoption of legally binding decisions. However, ministers use this format to coordinate political positions and prepare initiatives that can subsequently be considered by EU institutions.

Source: Swedish government, Council of the EU